Healthcare workers, such as doctors, nurses, and technicians, often use computers and/or mobile devices in the course of providing care to patients. Frequently, healthcare providers must print out a hard copy of data available to them on computers and/or mobile devices. Currently, a list of printers accessible from a given device can be either manually configured, or managed through naming conventions.
Healthcare organizations, such as hospitals and clinics, are frequently fairly large, and can have a substantial number of printers located at different locations. When healthcare workers desire to obtain a print out while using a computer and/or mobile device, they may be located a considerable distance from printers accessible from that device that have been manually configured or managed through a naming convention. Thus, a healthcare worker may only be able to obtain a printout from a given device on a printer (or printers) that are not close to the physical location of the healthcare worker using that device, and unable to obtain a printout from a printer (or printers) that are closer but not accessible from the device being used through its manual configuration, or management through naming conventions. Further, a healthcare worker may not be able to identify printers that may be accessible and closer, or be able to discern which available printers may actually be closest.
Healthcare organizations are subject to privacy laws and organizational policies as well. As one example, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) establishes regulations regarding use and disclosure of health-related information. Certain information available on a healthcare organization's computer systems may be limited to being printed out at certain predetermined, secure locations for privacy or security reasons. A healthcare organization may risk running afoul of privacy laws and/or organizational policies if a healthcare worker were to print such information out at an unapproved or unsecure location.
Additional factors may render certain printers unavailable or less desirable for use. For example, a printer may be out of paper, have a paper jam, or have some other mechanical issue which prevents it from functioning properly. Further, a printer may have another issue, such as a long queue, that makes it less desirable to use.